"GREYSTONE, YONKERS, N. Y., _April 23, 1886_.
"DEAR GOVERNOR HILL,--In submitting suggestions to you,
I should have great delicacy if I did not offer them as mere
suggestions which you, who have the public responsibility, must pass
upon according to your own judgment, and not according to mine.
"In addition to the objections to the Consent bill, which I
mentioned in my letter of night before last, there is another
difficulty. That act does not provide any mode by which railroads
not now connecting with the Broadway Railroad at Fourteenth Street
can make such connections. This would give great advantage to the
Seventh Avenue Railroad in competing at auction for the Broadway
franchise. If in consequence that company should succeed in getting
the franchise at a low price, such a result would be likely to
create a reaction against the reform movement.
"I adhere to the opinion that the Repeal bill and the Winding-up
bill should be acted upon promptly; that the Consent bill should be
retained for fuller consideration and, eventually, be rejected.
"About the remaining bill of the four reported by the Senate
Investigating Committee, I cannot find, by the newspapers, that it
has passed.
"It seems to me better than the original Cantor bill, which is now a
law, but it still has serious defects.
"1. It leaves the present law standing whereby the general term,
appointing commissioners, and rectifying their action, will dispense
with the consent of the abutting property-holders.
"2. It allows the Aldermen to pass over the veto of the Mayor a
resolution granting a railroad franchise, provided the consent of
one-half of the abutting property-owners be obtained.
"The first defect is the most serious. Perhaps the second may be
risked, though I do not think it quite safe to dispense with any
restrictions upon these grants.
"I do not know whether it is intended to pass this bill, or whether
it can be amended.
"In discussing these bills, I am not advised how far, if at all, any
of them have been changed by amendment.
"Very truly yours,
S. J. TILDEN."